Breaking with Tradition

Afternoon sun beat on Todd while he climbed the trail from the canyon to the top of La Jarita Mesa. The forest was thin on the rocky slope and shady places to stop were hard to find, so he struggled in the dry heat. It reached its worst near the top where he had to scramble up a cleft in bare rock.

He dragged himself up the last few steps and stood to look down the barrel of a deer rifle. "Stay where you are," she said, and Todd stopped with his heart pounding.

Todd showed her his empty hands and said, "I'm not armed." The girl facing him might have been pretty under different circumstances. But now, her long, brown pony tail fell over the rifle stock, and her dark eyes focused through the sight. It wasn't an appealing presentation.

She stepped back toward the old jeep behind her and looked him over. His skin gleamed under a sheen of sweat and his chest heaved from the effort of climbing out of the canyon. He didn't seem very threatening in his straw cowboy hat and hiking shorts.

"That's my truck back there," Todd said and gestured past her to where he'd parked that morning. "I have to pass you to reach it."

She glanced to where he pointed, lowered her rifle and said, "Walk around." They stood beside a small lake—a pond, really—perched on the edge of the canyon. A pair of shallow ruts skirted the grassy east shore, but elsewhere its water lapped against rocky crags.

"Are you always this friendly?" Todd asked. He kept his eyes on her and walked a circle that took him to the water's edge. She had a tent pitched beside her jeep. An easel held an unfinished painting of the lake.

"I'm careful," she said, "and you surprised me."

"Sorry," Todd said. "I didn't mean to. I'm Todd Stephens, and I'll be here for the next two nights." He stopped once he was past her and waited to see what she'd say.

"Are you camping alone?" she asked, and Todd nodded his answer. "Good. That way I'll only have to use one round."

Todd didn't like they way that started—there were too many firearms involved. He watched her from the back of his truck while he opened the topper and tailgate, tossed his equipment into the truck, and sat down to pull his walking shoes off. She leaned her rifle against the jeep, tugged a canvas hat down on her head, and sat in front of her easel.

The sun was dropping low over the peaks to the west, and Todd still needed to cook his dinner. He slapped a mosquito off his arm and found the bottle of bug repellent lotion in his day pack. He was lotioned and busy with his camp stove when he heard another slap echo off the crags. Todd looked up and watched his neighbor swat away one unseen bug, and then another.

Todd recognized an opportunity he wasn't sure he wanted. He looked at the little bottle of repellent and shrugged to himself. If that could cut his chance of being shot, then why not use it?

He stopped thirty yards away from her. "Hey!" he said. He didn't want to surprise her again.

She put her easel in the back of the jeep and stopped to slap another bug off her arm. "What do you want?" she asked. Now pink from his sunburn, hatless and barefoot, Todd looked even less threatening than before.

"It looks like you could use this," Todd said. He walked to within five yards and offered her the bottle. "It's bug repellent, and it works."

She raised a suspicious eyebrow at Todd, and then at the bottle. "What do you want for it?" she asked.

"For a few drops? Your name." Todd said. "You know mine, but I don't know yours."

She put her hand out and Todd stepped closer to give her the bottle. "I'm Cosima," she said. "Cosima Tafoya. Thanks." She squeezed a little of the lotion into her hand and rubbed it on her arm. "What are you doing out in the middle of nowhere?"

"I'm a Geologist," Todd said. "Actually, I'm a Geology student. I'm studying this area for my Master's Thesis." Cosima lotioned her other arm, and Todd asked, "Are you just here to paint?"

Cosima spread lotion on her neck and under the collar of her shirt before she handed the little bottle back. "Si, just that," she said. "I paint."

Todd cocked his head at Cosima. She looked younger than he was—certainly she wasn't old enough to have built a career in art. But then, the day was turning to dusk and the sky was pink. Maybe her looks were deceiving.

A small flock of ducks settled into the pond and started talking to each other, and Todd and Cosima both turned to watch. "It's a pretty place, isn't it?" Todd asked.

"That's why I come here," Cosima said. "Now, leave me alone."

Todd had no trouble leaving Cosima alone. He fixed dinner, wiped the pans clean, and then stretched out in the bed of his truck to read a dog-eared paperback by lamplight. He listened to the coyotes howl in the forest and slept until the heat of the morning sun made him move again.

Cosima's camp was quiet when Todd left in the morning. He didn't see her until late in the afternoon when he climbed the trail from the canyon again. He stopped on the scramble at the top of the trail and his voice bounced off the bare rock when he called her. "Cosima! It's Todd. I don't want to surprise you again."

When Todd topped the trail, he found Cosima's rifle on its rack in her jeep. She was packing her camp. She stopped her work and watched him nearly stumble off the trail. "You look bushed," she said. "Long day?"

"Yeah," he answered, and waved toward the peak that dominated the northern horizon. "I went across the canyon, up the peak, and took a wrong turn on the way back. Right now I need water."

Todd watched Cosima for a moment. She had a scarf tied over her hair and wore a loose t-shirt and shorts. "It look's like you're leaving," he said.

Cosima reached into the front seat of the jeep and backed out with a water bottle. "On me," she said and tossed the bottle at Todd.

She leaned back into the jeep and took her rifle off the rack. "Before I go, I want to clear up something. I probably gave you the wrong impression yesterday." She held the rifle with its butt against her hip and the muzzle pointing away, and she slammed the bolt open and closed.

Nothing happened. If there had been a shell in the chamber, it would have ejected. "Full magazine," she said, "Empty chamber. I'm not crazy, but if you'd taken a step toward me I would have chambered a round in a split second."

Todd gulped from Cosima's water bottle and wiped his mouth. "You have a round chambered now." he said and used the bottle to gesture to the jeep. "Do you have a long drive?"

"Just to Talpa," she said. "Maybe an hour and I'm home." Todd looked blank, so she explained. "South of Taos. And I'll take the round out of the chamber before I leave."

"If you don't have to leave right now," Todd said, "I'll make you dinner, and we can celebrate your sanity. Nothing fancy. I have hot dogs that I need to use tonight because I can't keep them cold tomorrow."

Cosima wasn't hard to convince. She finished packing, parked her jeep next to Todd's truck, and sat on the tailgate. She spread Todd's bug repellent on her arms and legs and watched him heat baked beans and hot dogs.

"You're really sunburned," she said. "I guess you haven't been out here very long."

Todd looked at his arm and shrugged. "Arms and legs," he said. "They'll peel. I usually work in a lab, and it's my first weekend out here." He couldn't help but notice that Cosima wasn't wearing a bra, but he pulled his attention up to ask, "It's Saturday. Why leave now?"

Cosima shrugged. "To take Abuela to early mass in the morning. It's a family thing."

"Family's important," Todd said, and handed Cosima a plate of baked beans and hot dogs.

"They're important," she said, "But sometimes they're my biggest problem."

* * *

It was late morning when Todd bounced down the rutted trail to the lake and found Cosima's jeep waiting by the shore. Two weeks had passed since they met, and he didn't think he'd see her again.

Curiosity and anticipation drove him to look for her. Cosima's jeep was still packed, but there was no sign of her around. He found her tent, food and equipment locked inside. Only her rifle was missing.

Todd's shoulders sagged a little while he walked back to his truck. He covered his now-tanned arms and legs with sun block, and pulled his cowboy hat down to shade his face. Todd hoisted his heavy day pack onto his shoulders, and walked away from the lake along a well-worn animal track.

The sparse pine trees on the canyon side did little to break the heat, but Todd barely noticed. It was after noon, and he was lost in the details of his work when Cosima's voice came from a rock outcrop above him. "Hey, you," was all she said.

Todd startled. His feet slipped on the loose pine needles, and he landed on his butt. He slid down the slope until he stopped himself with a foot against a pine sapling, and Cosima laughed above him. "I don't know how to get down there," she said, "Otherwise, I'd help you up."

"Hey, you," Todd said. He climbed to his feet and dusted dirt and pine needles off his sweaty legs. "I saw your jeep."

"And now you see me," Cosima said. "I didn't mean to surprise you." Cosima walked along the top of the outcrop and looked for a path down, and Todd walked along its foot. "So this is what you do out here?" she asked.

"Mostly," Todd said. "Map rocks, take measurements, make notes. Try not to get too lost." They found a break in the cliff and Cosima skittered down the slope to where Todd waited to stop her.

"I might be lost," Cosima said. "I'm glad to see you."

Todd dropped his day pack in a shaded spot below the rocks and sat down beside it. "Do you have water?" he asked. "Or lunch?"

Cosima pulled a leathery piece of meat out of her back pocket and sat down with him. "Venison jerky," she said then shook a small water bottle that she took from a holster on her belt, "And a little water. I was just going for a walk."

"I have a couple quarts of water, but it's not cold," Todd said and dug through his day pack. "I have an apple, and more cheese than I need."

They split what they had for lunch and ate while Todd tried to describe the route back to the lake. Cosima looked doubtful, and while Todd refilled her water bottle she said, "Why don't I just stick with you? I could be your assistant or something."

That made Todd laugh. "Sure, but you're kinda distracting." He stood up, pulled his pack on, and asked, "Do you ever wear a bra out here? Not that I'm complaining."

"Who would wear a bra on a hot day, alone in the woods?" Cosima asked. She followed Todd along the foot of the rocks and said. "Mi madre would, but she wouldn't be out here anyway."

Todd's work took them gradually up the canyon wall and around a small ridge. They walked mostly without talking until the ground started to level, and they could walk side-by-side. Todd said, "You're losing an afternoon of painting this way."

"Yeah, about that," Cosima said. "I lied about that a little. I really shouldn't say I'm a painter. I wait tables at Michael's in Taos. I can set up a couple easels in the park and tourists will pay fifty bucks for my shit. They can go home and say they bought from a Taos artist, but that's not a living."

Todd stopped and broke a chip off a small outcrop, then knelt beside it to put some notes on the map he carried. "Is that what you want to do?" he asked. "Paint, I mean."

"I think I want to do what you're doing," Cosima said. "Go to school, I mean."

Todd checked the time and squinted at the sun. "We should start back now. That'll leave time to cook dinner before dark." He took a few steps and Cosima hurried to catch him. "Why did you come out here if you aren't really a painter? Why don't you go to school?" he asked.

Cosima walked with her head down and carefully answered Todd's second question instead of his first. "My family is land rich and cash poor," she said. "So there's no money for school." She walked quietly before she went on. "And my family is very traditional. Even if they had money, they wouldn't spend it to send their daughter to college. So now I live in a casita behind mi Padre's house."

They followed a forest road back to the lake and Cosima's jeep came into view when they rounded the last bend. Todd gestured toward the jeep and said, "Your rifle rack is empty."

Cosima took a sideways step away from Todd. "Don't get your hopes up," she said. "I hid the rifle in back. Otherwise, it would be a reason for someone to break into the jeep." Todd had to stop an angry retort, but he forgot about it when they got to his truck and Cosima touched his arm. "Let me cook dinner for you tonight," she said. "I owe you one."

Todd wasn't hard to convince. He put his pack away and finished his notes while Cosima started her camp stove. He helped her set up her tent and lay a tarp on the grass, and that's where they sat cross-legged and faced each other for dinner.

Cosima handed Todd a tortilla wrapped around beans, shredded chicken and green chile. He took one bite then another, and said, "Damn this is good," and Cosima laughed.

"I won't lie," she said. "I didn't make it. I got it from work, and there's more." So Todd was full when the sun went down. Ducks settled on the lake, and the stars started appearing from east to west across the cloudless sky. He laid back on the tarp with his hands behind his head and gave Cosima a satisfied sigh.

Cosima watched Todd by the dwindling light while she put her stove away, and then she said, "You know more about me now than I know about you. Where's your family?"

"Roswell," Todd said. "No alien jokes, okay? I grew up there, my sister and my folks live there, but I left six years ago and I only go back to visit."

"At least Roswell's a bigger place," Cosima said. "In Talpa and in Taos, all the old families know each other, and teenagers don't have anything to do but each other. Not many girls finish high school that way." Todd's face was hidden in the darkness when Cosima sat beside him again. "Do you always work alone like this?"

Todd rolled over and propped himself up on one elbow to look at Cosima. "I have lately," he said. "The lab runs twenty-four hours a day. I'm alone if I work the night shift, but that's no big deal. I started doing field work like this a couple years ago, and that's almost always alone.

"I was glad to have you with me this afternoon, and not just because you improve the scenery. Last year sometime I woke up in the middle of the night with the feeling that when I go it'll be violently and alone—falling off a cliff or something. It felt like a premonition, and there've been time when it almost came true. I knew it wouldn't happen today because I wasn't alone."

"That's awful!" Cosima said then stopped to think while she watched a satellite race across the milky way. "I liked hiking with you today. It was more fun than sitting here by myself and painting another picture of the lake. I'll go with you tomorrow if you want." She laughed out loud. "I'll keep you safe."

"That would be great!" Todd said, "but I have a lot to get done. Can you get up at like dawn? I'll make breakfast."

Todd put his hand on Cosima's knee, and she pushed it away. She stood and stepped back. "Look," she said. "I'll be your hiking buddy—I'll even get up at dawn for you—but don't try to complicate my life, okay?"

Cosima closed up her truck, closed up her tent, and left Todd to his thoughts. He had a hard time getting to sleep, and he wasn't even sure he did sleep until he woke to the sound of horses by the lake.

Todd climbed out of the truck without making a sound and found Cosima already awake. She sat inside her tent and watched a herd of mustangs in the gray, predawn light. Todd moved slowly so he wouldn't catch the herd's attention and sat down near her to watch.

They counted five mares with their foals, about the same number of yearlings, and a chestnut stallion. Then Todd's cellphone went off to tell him it was dawn. "Dammit!" Todd said. He scrambled for his phone, but it was too late. The stallion wheeled away from the shore and the herd disappeared into the forest.

"That's only the second time I've seen mustangs," Cosima said, "The first time, they were a long way away." She climbed out of her tent and asked, "Should I make coffee?"

"First time for me," Todd said, and pitched his phone into his day pack. "I've got grits, eggs, and Tennessee ham. If there's extra coffee then I'll make red eye gravy, too."

The sun was still low over the distant, high peaks when they left the lake, walking away from the canyon rim. Cosima carried the water and Todd carried his heavy tools and their lunch. They stopped to eat in the shade of a towering rock, and Todd watched Cosima let her day pack slide off her shoulders. The back of her shirt was soaked with sweat; she slipped on some loose rocks, and she sat down hard.

"Are you okay?" Todd asked. "I haven't seen you drink much water."

"I've been saving it," Cosima said, and Todd sat down in front of her. He handed her a water bottle and watched her drink, and he watched her drink some more. She looked better and moved with more strength when she pointed to clouds that built in the west. "It looks like rain."

Todd could only groan. "I'm gonna melt. I hate working in the rain."

A shower passed while they ate lunch. It was too light and too brief to cool the afternoon, but it left the air briefly humid. They hiked across a sunburned meadow where the blond grass was wet from the brief rain and then down along the edge of a little ravine.

Cosima took the lead, and Todd watched her pony tail swing across her shoulders while she walked. They were crossing the top of a steep granite outcrop when he saw her slip on wet pine needles. She whooped and her feet slid from under her.

Todd lunged to wrap an arm around Cosima's waist, and he pulled her against him. His own footing gave way, and Todd reacted on instinct as much as experience. He pushed away from the granite face to fall free. He made sure that his feet were under him and Cosima was on top of him.

It was a short fall onto a scree slope, and they slid down over a juniper shrub and stopped in a heap. Cosima scrambled away from Todd as soon as they stopped, and she spun around to face him. "Are you hurt?" she asked. "Are you okay?"

Todd was a little dazed. He moved his arms and legs, his ankles and wrists. "Everything works," he said, "but it all hurts." He sat up, and then stood with his hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath.

"You're bleeding!" Cosima said. She knelt behind Todd to get a better look at the cuts and scrapes on the back of his bare thighs. Todd turned to look, and she said, "Hold still."

Cosima took the scarf off her head and wet it with drinking water from her day pack, and Todd winced while she washed the cuts clean. "You're like all scratched up," she said, "but nothing's very deep." She dabbed at the bloodiest scratch and laughed. "And I was here to save you," she said. "How did you do that?"

"Practice," Todd said. "It's happened before, but that was the first time I fell for two."

Cosima sat down on the rocks and said, "How long will it take us to get back to the trucks from here? I need to be back home tonight."

Todd looked at his map and guessed where they were. "It's about three miles," he said, "And mostly up hill. I could usually do that in a little more than an hour, but now I might be slow."

They took two hours. Todd limped to his truck and leaned his butt on the edge of the tailgate. "Do you want to eat before you leave?" he asked. "I have pasta and a jar of sauce for tonight."

Cosima dropped the day pack beside Todd. "That sounds good. I can throw in some cobbler from work. It's really good." She found a water bottle from the pack and drank a swallow then lifted her pony tail and emptied it on her shoulders. "I don't want to drive back feeling this icky. I'm going to take a bath."